Observing Mineral Dust in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe: Current Capabilities and Challenges ahead for the Development of Dust Services
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Mineral dust produced by wind erosion of arid and semiarid surfaces is a major component of atmospheric aerosol that affects climate, weather, ecosystems, and socioeconomic sectors such as human health, transportation, solar energy, and air quality. Understanding these effects and ultimately improving the resilience of affected countries requires a reliable, dense, and diverse set of dust observations, fundamental for the development and the provision of skillful dust-forecast-tailored products. The last decade has seen a notable improvement of dust observational capabilities in terms of considered parameters, geographical coverage, and delivery times, as well as of tailored products of interest to both the scientific community and the various end-users. Given this progress, here we review the current state of observational capabilities, including in situ, ground-based, and satellite remote sensing observations in northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for the provision of dust information considering the needs of various users. We also critically discuss observational gaps and related unresolved questions while providing suggestions for overcoming the current limitations. Our review aims to be a milestone for discussing dust observational gaps at a global level to address the needs of users, from research communities to nonscientific stakeholders.
Authors: Lucia Mona, Vassilis Amiridis, Emilio Cuevas, Antonis Gkikas, Serena Trippetta, Sophie Vandenbussche, Angela Benedetti, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova, Paola Formenti, Alexander Haefele, Stelios Kazadzis, Peter Knippertz, Benoit Laurent, Fabio Madonna, Slobodan Nickovic, Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, Gelsomina Pappalardo, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Thomas Popp, Sergio Rodríguez, Andrea Sealy, Nobuo Sugimoto, Enric Terradellas, Ana Vukovic Vimic, Bernadette Weinzierl, Sara Basart
Institutions: CNR-IMIOT – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Metodologie Integrate per l’Osservazione della Terra, National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Academy of Athens, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Agricultural University of Iceland, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Physics Belgrade, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, National Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Belgrade, University of Vienna, World Meteorological Organization
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: European Commission, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, AXA Research Fund, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, H2020 European Research Council
Awards: G2273245655, G2366342275, G2524730468, Absorbing aerosol layers in a changing climate: aging, lifetime and dynamics, G3977786955, European Natural Airborne Disaster Information and Coordination System for Aviation, G434337789, European Research Area for Climate Services, G4651782919, The role of High Latitude Dust in changing climate, Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure Implementation Project, G7762018661, G7779230633, Does dust triboelectrification affect our climate?, G8659271473, G93928002
OpenAlex ID: W4386099951